Analysis of and commentary on South African politics from a liberal perspective. Winner: Best Political Blog 2012.

Why ANC provincial departments have contempt for you

by The Editor

FEATURE: Annual Reports go directly to accountability and transparency. If they are produced by a government timeously and made easily available to the public and press, it says something about that government’s commitment to those two principles. What follows is an assessment of the extent to which annual reports are available on provincial department websites. In undertaking it, it became apparent that not only were the reports scarce, but that some 18 websites just didn’t work at all. To find out which ones, read on.

I tried recently to ascertain the extent to which provincial government departments had spent money on ‘entertainment’ – a standard line item in every annual report.

In order to do this, I would need a copy of each respective annual report, for each provincial government department, for the 2010/2011 financial year – in other words, the latest rounds of annual reports, tabled around the middle of last year.

That would seem like a perfectly reasonable undertaking. Not only is every public entity required by law to make their reports easily available to the public (to whom they are ultimately accountable) but every provincial department has its own dedicated website – the natural home, you would think, for such reports to be housed.

Well, the long and the short of it is that any such analysis is virtually impossible, such is the dire condition of provincial government department websites, on the one hand, and the scarcity of such reports on the other.

The only province without a report missing or website broken, and where every annual report could be found in an easily downloadable form was, you guessed it, the Western Cape – coincidentally, also the only province not controlled by the ANC.

Outside of that, however, the situation really is bleak.

50 (58%) of the 86 ANC provincial departments did not have their reports available. Of the 36 that did, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the files were so poorly formatted and of such size (I had to download some in excess of 140MB) that it is fair to say no one without high-speed broadband would be able to access them. In contrast, all 12 Western Cape departmental reports are easily available both on the respective websites and in a central repository.

But, perhaps even more disturbingly, a significant number of provincial department websites were simply broken, the URLs leading to error messages (or, in one case, blocked because of a virus threat – I haven’t linked to that).

18 in total – the equivalent of almost two entire provincial administrations.

Outside of perhaps Gauteng (which, despite have one broken site, has a good set of web pages) the rest are so badly maintained, their records so poorly managed, that in practical terms they might as well be broken anyway.

For every other province I was able to scrape together four or five reports, not so the Northern Cape. I couldn’t find a single 2010/2011 annual report anywhere on its site. If there was a departmental website, the report wasn’t uploaded (indeed, there wasn’t even a section dedicated to annual reports) but, in two instances, the departments didn’t have sites at all, a step up from being broken, I suppose. Not that it was going to let the rest of its provincial colleagues down on that front mind you, obliging with two broken departmental sites of its own.

And these were just 2010/2011 annual reports, go any further back than that and your chances of success diminish rapidly. How is it that in 2012, after 18 years of democracy, it is so painstaking to find something so fundamental as an annual report?

If perchance you are a member of the public, interested in the performance of your provincial government, well, good luck to you. On the upside, if you are able to scrounge together the relevant information, at least you will be able to compare it to what is happening in the Western Cape.

Members of the public are one thing, the fourth estate is another. The media is required to carry out oversight and annual reports go to the heart of that endeavor. No annual reports means less oversight, and so accountability is denuded of its worth.

A final word on transparency, the other principle affected by this sort of general ineptitude. Quite rightly South Africa is currently outraged about the Secrecy Bill and its implications. But, make no mistake, classified or unclassified, the issue is largely irrelevant if the respective government department cannot get it together to upload its defining annual document to its own website – that is, if it is able to make to the website work in the first place.

It’s a kind of disdain for the public.

And accountability and transparency are the weaker for it.

But actually, it’s about you, the public. Easy access to annual reports is your right. It’s how you know what it happening to your money. Provincial departments have duty to you in this regard. On the evidence it would appear ANC controlled departments have little more contempt for that right.

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Hey Ryan, I am sure Google refers you to the sites, but the actual sites don’t work. All the one’s listed above – which are the ones listed on the respective province’s websites – don’t work, or don’t exist. If you have working links to those departments, please let me know what they are. Thanks, Gareth.

An illuminating post. Thank you.
As an owner of one of the far-too-many companies which have had to close as a result of the horrendous mismanagement of funds (the Eastern Cape, this time), I am no stranger to trudging the corridors of power in a vain search for the competent financial decision makers and the payment of bills.

While transparency and accountability are valid requirements, I also believe there is a rampant disrespect for the Law in this country. From the president downwards, public servants and office bearers perpetrate misdemeanours without fear of consequences – most of which are never brought to bear on the guilty.

Transparency and and accountability need to go hand in hand with severe and permanent punishment from those to whom the guilty are accountable; not indefinite suspension on full pay and benefits.

I am glad to see another site highlighting the catastrophic incompetence prevalent in the ruling party.

Eighteen years at “the helm” with ZERO accountability…is it even POSSIBLE to actually GUESSTIMATE how much hard earned taxpayer’s money has been stashed away in back pockets, big black ego vehicles and !*ng SWISS bank accounts…? And the poor “sheep” that blindly voted them into and KEEP them in the driving seat CONTINUE to do so, in the vague hope that somehow, somewhere, sometime they MAYBE will receive more than just a cheap T-shirt and a few cheap groceries and get that often promised little RDP house… while fatcats drink John Blue and Tizer and eat sushi off the bellies of prostitutes… not because they particularly ENJOY the taste of it… but because they CAN… since the stupid taxpayers are funding it! Do we live in a “cloud cuckoo land” or a “banana republic”…? YOU DECIDE, and then consider your vote!

Hey Damian, yes the Free State main page works (unlike all the others, which don’t work at all), but not the link to the annual reports, which is what I included. So it is partly broken, which counts as broken to me.

Saddest part of all is, very little is going to change. Either the majority will keep voting not using their heads or the ANC will remain in power by hook or by crook. They have tasted money and power and losing the control of the Government in it’s entirety is not something they are going to allow. The masses will starve and be without while the ANC elite will live the high life. It’s the African way. Zimbabwe is a prime example. Those opposed can do nothing and the supporters are plodding sheep. Zanu PF remains at the reigns as will the ANC!……The issue contained in this blog is proof that the ANC couldn’t care less about accountability. They will snub & attack anyone who points out their failures. Again, the proof is in the eating of the pudding as one has to look no further than the recent attack on Nedbank chairman Reuel Khoza.